2016 GREATER BOSTON NOISE REPORT

Erica Walker, a doctoral student at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Taken by Julio Cesar Roman

For the past year, as a part of my dissertation research as a doctoral candidate at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, I have been measuring sound levels and conducting the Greater Boston (now National) Neighborhood Noise Survey within the Greater Boston Area. In addition to finishing up my dissertation, it was very important for me to update the community on key findings from my research.

But, I didn’t want just any kind of update. I wanted to push the envelope. This is the first comprehensive noise assessment of the Greater Boston Community since 1971 and I wanted to take this opportunity to present a new way of looking at noise. In particular, I wanted the report to be tangible, meaning, I wanted it to be accessible, interactive, visual, aural, and most importantly, useful.

Together, with Julio Cesar Roman and Marcos Luna, we have compiled The 2016 Greater Boston Noise Report. This report includes four (4) main topics:

Survey Results:Responses from the Greater Boston Neighborhood Noise Survey, including demographics, responses to questions on sound perception, health impacts, and noise abatement strategies. Here, we also present findings from noise complaint data gathered from the City of Boston.

Neighborhood Noise Report Cards: Each Boston neighborhood was given a grade based on determinants we found both positively and negatively influenced sound levels and sound perception. This is the first of any such report card in the nation and we are super excited to share our results with you. We invite you to see which neighborhood came in first as well as see the score/grade in your neighborhood.

Community Sound Portraits and Urban Sound Bites: These two series take are aural and visual case studies of sound in our environment. The Community Sound Portrait Series consists of an interview of real-life residents about noise issues in their neighborhood. We take their photograph and collect sound bites and record the sound levels near their home so you can experience their neighborhood visually and aurally. The Urban Sound Bites series is a collection of images and accompanying sounds that are typically found in an urban environment. We invite you to visit these galleries and transport your senses to another dimension.

I want to first thank Julio and Marcos for the EXTRAORDINARY amount of work that they put into this project. I also want to thank each and everyone of you who took the time to fill out the survey and participated in the sound portraits. I want to thank the Cities of Boston, Somerville, and Cambridge for allowing me to occupy your cities for the past year.

So please, take a look at our results. I also want to let you know that we are currently conducting the National Neighborhood Noise Survey, which can be found HERE. If you are interested in participating in our Community Sound Portrait Series, complete our online application HERE. We will be updating report cards to include neighborhoods in Somerville and Cambridge shortly. Stay tuned!

Your study does not reflect the East Boston, Winthrop, and South Boston neighborhoods with any sophistication nor any regard that Logan Airport is in our backyard. The ground level noise from aircraft not being towed into bays. The aircraft put on holding patterns.
Nor the asention or deception of aircraft including Helicopters, small and large air uses throughout the entire week. In particular the complaints for years of noise air pollution peak hours morning, and evenings. Nor the after 10:00 pm flights leaving Logan International Airport. Hearing tests here with school,children lower than the rest of the City! And how it causes lack of sleep jet aircraft departing late nights! Your study has some merit, but lacks sophisticated methods to record true sound. Good luck don’t give up. We have more than tested and tried results. The answer? More gates more flights!
More noise pollution, more air pollution.

Hello- I have lived on Clearway St in back bay for 4 years. I am 34 and the noise has continuously been unbearable. I wanted to pass this info along to you. We are located right next to the new sky scraper going up. Between that construction and the construction of the other building that just went up it’s been 3 years of nonstop ground breaking construction, inclusive of nights and weekends. The Christian Science center recently sold my building and now they are flipping all the Apts here. The construction begins at 7 am and goes till 6 and on saturdays. These are full reconstructive construction so the noise has also been u bareable not to mention all the construction workers and their trucks. They estimate this will go on for a year and the skyscraper will take at least another year. There are some Berkeley students who live here and they practice their music despite the building owners requesting not to. At least once a week I have to go ask someone to keep their music down or shut a party down. This wasn’t like this when I first moved here. The steeet is located next to the Christian Science center so it echoes a lot. The bodega is at the end of my street and people hang out there a lot outside. It’s also a one way street so people skateboard and hang out. It’s a cut through for kids late at night loud and drunk. I took your quiz and my neighborhood got a b. I would definitely say it’s a D for noise at this point especially being in a tourist area where people park at the Pru for games or siteseeing. I just wanted to give you this info for future surveys. Thanks!

Fantastic study – thank you so much! This is exactly the kind of research that puts public health and prevention back on the map (no, we don’t need a $1,500 pill to cure something, we need to support well informed public policy and stir up voter power). I think you should team up with the CAFEH study at Tufts and add in income by census tract. I agree with Ms. Reilly about East Boston and environs. We (speaking about Somerville) now share this issue with East Boston and all the communities under the new flight pattern that directs the majority of traffic along a very narrow path. The overall continuous noise may not be all that high, but the close interval spikes are like water torture. Just sent the Globe story and this link to an Alderman at Large who seems to be leading the agitation here.

I don’t believe for 1 minute we have to put up with all the noise because we live in the
City. My friend’s son got a $50. fine over 25 yrs. ago at 4 45 p.m. for having his car radio too loud
in Hyannis Center. These misfits drive around with car radios blasting at all different
hours of the day & night & the City still has not done anything about. There are people
who have children & there are elderly who are sick & nobody is doing anything about it.
People only get away with what you allow them to get away with. Does anyone get
that.